Rockford mayor could form special office to combat domestic violence, human trafficking

Saturday

Oct 7, 2017 at 8:00 AMOct 7, 2017 at 11:26 PM

Jeff Kolkey Staff writer @jeffkolkey

ROCKFORD — Mayor Tom McNamara will unveil a report this week that calls for the creation of a new office to coordinate efforts to combat one of Rockford’s most pervasive crime problems and attack an illicit sex trade.

The report argues that a Mayor’s Office on Domestic Violence and Human Trafficking would elevate the profile of the city’s fight against domestic violence by placing a coordinator in the city’s highest office, and help officials better understand the extent of the city’s human trafficking problem.

Reducing domestic violence — an issue linked to human trafficking and the commercial sex industry — could improve the lives of Rockford residents and put a dent in the city’s stubbornly high violent crime rate. But McNamara said reducing domestic violence is about more than crime because its effects ripple out from behind the closed doors of Rockford homes to negatively affect classrooms, neighborhoods and workplaces.

“It touches every single key issue we are facing in our community,” McNamara said. “I don’t see how from a moral, fiscal, or social standpoint we can turn a blind eye to this horrific epidemic.”

McNamara at a City Council meeting Tuesday will present the $6,000 report his office commissioned to examine the extent of Rockford’s struggles with domestic violence and sex trafficking, and how offices have been established in other cities as a "best practice" response. Establishing the office could require City Council approval.

Confronting the Problems of Domestic Violence and Human Trafficking in Rockford

Law enforcement agencies in Winnebago County have this year booked 1,797 suspects into the county jail on charges related to domestic violence — domestic battery, violations of an order of protection and interfering with the reporting of domestic violence.

Those charges represent about 19 percent of all bookings into the jail this year.

Charges related to domestic violence account for about 6.5 jail bookings in Winnebago County every day. That's a conservative figure, though, because it doesn't include burglaries, robberies and sex assault charges that may be related to domestic violence.

Ten of last year's 27 homicides in Rockford were related to domestic violence.

Rockford police have so far this year arrested and booked 804 suspects into the jail on charges related to domestic violence, 55 percent more than the 519 recorded in all of 2016.

Rockford Police Department Sgt. Mary Ogden, who leads the city's domestic violence unit, said there have been more domestic violence related calls for service. And Ogden said officers are building cases solid enough for prosecutors to file charges.

"We are doing our job and presenting quality cases to the (Winnebago County State's Attorney) so they can authorize charges," Ogden said. "Kudos to the guys on the streets."

Ogden said that if a mayor's office is formed to tackle domestic violence and human trafficking it would help to coordinate the efforts of social services agencies, law enforcement and the courts.

It could cost money to hire someone to lead such a citywide, coordinated response, but McNamara said the city may save money in the long run — beyond the human toll of these crimes.

"One way or another, we are already paying," McNamara said.

Although the extent of human trafficking is more difficult to ascertain than that of domestic violence, it is clearly a problem in Rockford and Winnebago County.

Four minor teenagers were involved in sex trafficking cases investigated by Winnebago County sheriff's deputies this year.

Police say narcotics and domestic violence is often interwoven with human trafficking — defined as using force, coercion or threats to convince victims to work as prostitutes.

Anecdotal information, interviews with prostitutes and online message boards where "johns" talk about buying sex in Rockford on the streets, in hotels, massage parlors and lingerie shops, suggest Rockford has a significant underground sex trade, said Jennifer Cacciapaglia, a former assistant city attorney and the leader of the Rockford Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation. Cacciapaglia wrote the report for McNamara's administration.

In it, she writes that the city “is plagued with alarming rates of domestic violence and the existence of commercial sex trafficking.” And she says the creation of a specialized office “explicitly acknowledges the severity of this problem and is a critical first step in addressing the need for an ongoing coordinated community response.”

Winnebago County Judge Rosemary Collins said many of the criminal defendants who walk into her courtroom have histories of witnessing or experiencing domestic violence as children. Collins is hopeful that a mayor's office, if it were formed, could reach out in a more holistic way to families and children than the courts and criminal justice system can on its own.

"Many of these children have a hard time escaping those chains of violence that wrap around them at an early age," Collins said.

Jeff Kolkey: 815-987-1374; jkolkey@rrstar.com; @jeffkolkey

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